State Senate bills aim to lower college textbook prices with creation of digital library
By Naheed Rajwani
April 17, 2012 8:06 a.m.
Prices for some college textbooks may be lower next year, after legislation aimed at reducing the cost of course materials passed in a California Senate committee last week.
The legislation, which is contained in two bills, was introduced in the Senate by State Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) and state Sen. Elaine Alquist (D-Santa Clara) in February.
The first bill, Senate Bill 1052, would create a nine-member council including faculty members from the University of California, the California Community Colleges and California State University to determine the 50 most widely taken lower-division courses at public postsecondary institutions.
The second bill, Senate Bill 1053, would create a digital library to house the open-source materials such as course textbooks and other course materials based on findings from the council. Students would be able to access textbooks and related materials for free online or for about $20 in hard copy, according to the bill.
If passed, both bills will go into effect in January.
Drafters of the legislation anticipate it will cost $25 million to implement, said Alicia Trost, communications director for Steinberg.
Though the source of the funding is not explicitly identified in the legislation, it is likely the money will come from the state’s general fund, which also pays for social services and higher education, Trost said.
Drafters of the bills said they also plan to talk to some nonprofit organizations to see if they want to fund the library, she added.
The proposal is practical in the sense that platforms for open-source material already exist, said Christopher Kelty, an associate professor at the UCLA Department of Information Studies who specializes in open-source software.
However, Kelty said the state may need to “reinvent the wheel” because most existing books are already owned by publishers and would not be available for use as open-source materials.
An alternative would be to pay faculty members, who would otherwise sell their work to publishers, to create content for the open-source library, Kelty said.
“This would be a cheaper option because a lot of faculty members don’t expect to get paid much from the textbooks they sell to publishers,” he said.
Members of the Association of American Publishers have expressed concerns regarding the legislation, arguing it will hurt small publishers while also reducing the quality of the course material being offered to students.
In general, publishers are not opposed to open-source materials, said Bruce Hildebrand, executive vice president of the association. He said the opposition is more economically based.
“What we are opposed to is the government going into competition with the private sector,” he said.
Hildebrand said he is also concerned that the quality of open-source materials will not match up to that of textbooks from publishers.
With the increasing costs of technology and supplemental materials, it might be harder for the state to create quality course materials with just $25 million, he said.
If the legislation is implemented, Trost said faculty at the UC, CSU and community colleges would play a major role in choosing books for the courses.
The materials will be professionally developed in a way that follows the publisher’s model and will undergo peer review before they are adopted by the council, she said.
“The most important part is that the economic effect on students will be enormous if (the legislation is) successful,” Kelty said.
Jessica Guzman, a second-year Chicana/o studies student, spent about $300 on books this quarter.
To offset some of the costs for textbooks, Guzman said she uses books on reserve at the library, but sometimes has a hard time getting hold of the copies because they are limited in quantity.
“The fact that some of the books (will be) free outweighs my concerns about their quality,” she said.
The legislation must be voted on by the Senate Appropriations Committee and the floor of the Senate before it can go to the State Assembly for a final vote, Trost said.
At this point it is “very likely” the bills will pass because they have the support of state Democrats, who constitute a majority in the Legislature, she said.
